Cal Mar Hotel Suites — Hotel in Santa Monica

I stayed at the Cal Mar Hotel in Santa Monica for five days a couple of weeks ago, and it was so wonderful!!! I'd go back there in a heartbeat. It's a great retro apartment building like you see in movies about California in the 60s with a courtyard and pool in the middle. Each suite is an apartment, and I'm so glad they haven't renovated them and taken the charm out of them. My kitchen had green tile and retro curtains around the big window, and I loved it. And it's a complete kitchen!! Fridge, stove, microwave, pots/pans, dishes, everything you could need or want. They even had a coffee maker with regular and decaf coffee, sweeteners, and coffee creamer. My bathroom had blue tile and a blue bathtub :) it was really cool. The bathroom isn't large, but you're essentially renting a complete apartment for an exceptional price, and I would personally rather have that than a hotel room with a larger bathroom. I really felt like I lived there and had my own apartment there, which was awesome. And the location is amazing!! It's in this beautiful residential neighborhood, and it was perfect walking distance to the 3rd Street Promenade and one block from the ocean! Something else I loved, was they had pretty flowers planted at the entrance under the huge trees, and the courtyard/pool area had pretty lights at night. They also have parking spaces, so if you rent a car, you don't have to try and park on the street (there is a daily fee for a parking space, and at first I thought "per day? really?" but when I thought about it, i realized with the great rate I got through Expedia that I pretty much got the parking for free). And the staff was so very nice, like incredibly so -- polite, gracious, helpful. After I booked through Expedia, I called the hotel to make sure I had booked a room with a balcony that faced the street -- turned out, I hadn't booked it that way, but they went out of their way to change my reservation so I could have the kind of room I wanted and they made sure when they changed it that my Expedia rate stayed there. So I got to sit out on the balcony in the morning and have coffee and watch people go by and look at the palm trees like I wanted to :) And very tops on the list is it was spotlessly clean. No smells, no yuck, and no signs of bugs whatsoever (and, trust me, I looked very carefully -- I'm hyper about any chance of bedbugs anywhere I stay). This is not an updated posh hotel, so if that's what you prefer, this just wouldn't be the place for you to stay. But if you want a charming, comfortable place with an awesome retro vibe that's super clean, amazingly affordable, and in an incredible location, it can't be beat. I'm already planning another trip to Santa Monica partly because I want to stay there again. I loved it and hope they never renovate the charm out of it. So happy...

Usually a guest or a customer would say "stay away from this place" when writing reviews due to bad experience or bad service received. Well in all fairness with this hotel, those words doesn't even apply for this place. Why? Because if you see Cal Mar Hotel Suites, you better "RUN AWAY as Far as you can."

This hotel must be the worst Hotel my family and I ever stayed at. They should not even allowed to call this a Hotel because it's not. That is very misleading! This should be called a "Motel." It doesn't have the ambiance, the feel or the amenities of a Hotel.

My wife and I love to travel and there are 3 main things that people look for when they go to a Hotel and those are (1) Tranquility (2) Hygienic (3) No hidden charges (4) good service

Those 3 main things are non-existent in this place. Why? Because (1) The walls have no sound proof, you can hear other guests clamoring with one another either from other room or outside the pool, walking (you can hear their footsteps), and watching TV. The floor shakes each time kids run outside our door. (2) it's absolutely filthy. They have this pool that they brag about. Well the water that got spilled outside the pool attracts mosquitoes and there's a lot of flies flying around since my dad and I have to kill 2 that flew in to our room. (3) this is not entirely their fault, Expedia did not even told us that they charge a parking fee on top of your stay. (4) Front desk is not available, and even told me he's on break when I'm only asking on why is there no hot water. He could have just answered me right away. The next morning when I'm trying to ask for an extra towel, theres not even an answer.

The only suggestion that I can make for Cal Mar Hotel is please don't mislead the customer by saying it's a "Hotel" if this was a Motel and we decided to go and we experienced what we experienced well I would not even say a word since we will not going to expect a lot. But if you are going to claim that you are a "Hotel" and going to charge us a Hotel price well as a customer or a valued guests we better expect a Hotel Type of experience. This business use the city of Santa Monica to charge a lot and mislead people by saying that it's a Hotel.

If I can only back in time, I will run away...

i am not one to leave reviews but Cal Mar really did it for me. It is in a great location, super close to the beach. The service was great, very friendly people, I could tell they put lots of effort in to keep the place clean and accommodate for guests needs, but no matter how hard they tried it was not good enough. Immediately when entering I was approached by 3 baby cockroaches claiming their land in the kitchen, I screamed, terrified for my life, but then i let it slide this time. The cloth furniture was filthy, but they were happy to give us sheets to cover it. I woke up bright and early and hopped in the shower, it began to fill with water, the drain could not keep up, after about 4 minutes it was almost filled to the brim, I had to rush out of the shower before it drowned me. I stayed at Cal Mar for 3 nights, my first morning there a dripping noise began to occur constantly in the bathroom, i searched all over for where it was coming from until i realized the noise was bellowing from the wall. I was terrified this was going to cause the ceilings to fall in. The sounds got louder and faster every moment I was there, by the last night it was so loud it kept me up almost all night. Some might compare it to water torture. My last night there I ran to the bathroom desperate to pee, the dripping noise mocking me, when I let out another scream, I had encountered a huge cockroach!!!! I ran from the building terrified of what was to come. My family and I searched the bathroom finding cockroach after cockroach. I felt unsafe going to sleep that night, the thought of cockroaches crawling in my bed and attacking me when i was the most vulnerable. As I attempted to sleep, terrified the heater turned on. It began to scream almost as loud as me when encountered the cockroaches. It banged and screeched, it sounded almost as if someone... or something... was trying to break through the wall. So i layed there, ecstatic to leave in the morning, terrified of cockroaches taking my life and bed, being tortured by the constant dripping noise that only got louder and louder, du du du du du du du, while the heater yelled at me "dont go to sleep !!!!! aghhh ahhhhh" i felt as if it was cackling at me. I do not recommend staying at the...